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Just reflecting.. but I’ve realised that I don’t resonate with some of the experiences black ppl face because I’ve never really had to deal with them.
1st/2nd generation immigrant difficulties I just don’t identify with because I’m not from that background —>
1st/2nd generation immigrant difficulties I just don’t identify with because I’m not from that background —>
Eg, the stigma around ‘foreign’ sounding names & them being hard to pronounce. I don’t have that issue b/c my name isn’t influenced by parental immigrant background.
Even down to identifying with ‘back home’. I don’t have a ‘back home’ because I was born here..
Even down to identifying with ‘back home’. I don’t have a ‘back home’ because I was born here..
And as were my parents. Grandad was born in Jamaica but came here when he was a kid. Grandma is English, so again, I generally refer to ‘home’ as just straight England. So I resonate less with discourse on immigrant backgrounds etc because I don’t really identify with them.
That’s not to say I’m disconnected with ‘black’ culture altogether, as many people (wrongly) assume. However, it’s very British-centric, and less around Africa etc because I’ve no connection to Africa or ‘back home’ other than simply ancestry.
I’d like to visit Jamaica though and see what that’s like, but I’m under no pretence that I’ll be ‘going back home’ if I were to do that. It’d be me seeing where my grandad grew up before he came here.
That’s why I think it’s not helpful to categorise ‘BAME’ so sweepingly, as experiences and backgrounds are so different, especially with 1st, 2nd and 3rd gen experiences. But I am learning more about these different experiences than I thought I needed. It is eye opening.
I think I perhaps am, at points, ignorant to these differences. Esp when it comes to languages. I don’t speak any other than English in my family, so I’m not necessarily aware of the difficulties that come that, for example. I want to be more understanding though.
